1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of watercrafts, and in particular to inflatable watercrafts having hydrodynamic structures and features that are inherent in the counterpart rigid watercraft structures.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventional rigid (hull) inflatable boats (RIBs) typically lack an advantage of inflatable watercrafts, in that the former are not foldable, collapsible, or rollable into a compact storage configuration. Instead, these conventional RIBs have large stowage volumes that limit the quantities available for multiple RIB deployment from hosts, such as ships, aircraft and land transports. Although the inflatable tubes on these RIBs can be deflated and stored in a smaller volume, the stowage footprint of the remainder of the hull cannot be significantly reduced by conventional manufacturing techniques.
While conventional inflatable boats (IBs), on the other hand, benefit from reduced stowage footprints; they, however, suffer from the drawback of not being rigid enough even when fully inflated. Instead, the entire boat can bend and deflect to uncomfortable amounts in various seaways. Additionally, with the use of conventional inflatable materials in such IBs, the required stiffness and definition in structure cannot be achieved so as to assemble a fully inflatable boat with hydrodynamic features and structures of the counterpart rigid boat, one example of such feature and structure being running strakes along the hull form.
One advantage that is associated with rigid hulls is the utilization of complex hull shapes and supporting structures which effectuate certain beneficial sea-keeping results. It would be advantageous to devise a way to achieve these hydrodynamic structures and features when assembling inflatable watercrafts. What is needed is a new approach to conventional assembly of rigid inflatable boats and inflatable boats that impart increased and variable stiffness, additional strength, redundancy, and improved buoyancy to the inflatable hull structure. Further, it would be beneficial to assemble an inflatable boat in a manner that allows for the construction of hydrodynamic hull features, such as running strakes, which, as a result, would improve the hull performance and allow for greater flexibility and control in hull design.